Jay Cody, formerly a longtime basketball coach in North Jersey, displaying a trophy his Florida high school team won.

Had he never coached another game, Cody, 63, would be remembered for his unique exacta of winning sectional boys’ titles at Wayne Valley and Wayne Hills. But he’s out to win more at Jacksonville’s Creekside High, a three-year-old school that’s been a successful program since its inception.

"That first year we didn’t even have seniors in the school," Cody said. "We kind of scrambled a bit without too much experience and wound up going 17-9."

A year later, Cody’s team went 19-8 and got to the Florida’s elite eight by beating Palatka – the state’s No. 1 ranked team – in a regional final. Ten days earlier, Creekside had snapped Palatka’s 24-0 start with a double-overtime win.

This year, Creekside’s season ended abruptly at 17-7 when Gainesville’s Eastside High scored a 60-43 victory over the visiting Knights in a regional quarterfinal.

Cody’s transition back to basketball began with him working as an assistant at nearby Bartram Trail High. When the area’s soaring population required a new school, Cody moved to Creekside – and some of his players were able to move with him.

"When you’re not calling the shots, it’s kind of hard to sit there and watch somebody else do it," said Cody, who also coached at Butler and Manchester high schools and served as a Columbia University assistant.

It was at Columbia where Cody – who grew up in the same Jersey City neighborhood as Bob Hurley — learned the intricacies of coach Pete Carril’s Princeton offense, which he applies at Creekside.

"What, are you stealing my stuff again?" Carril would good-natured bark from the court as Cody took in Princeton’s practice sessions.

"I liked Pete as a person," Cody said. "He was very bright, with a dry sense of humor."

Cody’s players occasionally wish they played in a more fast-paced system, but their string of winning seasons is all the proof they need — it works.

"He’s brought the most out of these players," said friend Joe Del Buono, the Bergen County Coaches Association secretary-treasurer. "He has a tremendous rapport with his players and he’s an excellent teacher of the Princeton offense."

Cody was a volunteer assistant in 2005 when Del Buono coached at Ramapo High School. Their friendship goes back to the early ’70s at a Wayne Valley summer league, where Del Buono would marvel at Cody’s odd reverse-spin jump shots.

Those shots were a feature of Cody’s playing days at Queen of Peace and at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, where Cody was a captain.

Around the Easter break, Cody returns to New Jersey to see his brother and his nephews in Hoboken, but Florida is home now. And as long as it’s still fun, Cody plans to be coaching at Creekside.

"It’s enjoyable. I like being at practice every day," Cody said. "I probably drive them a little harder than they’ve been driven before. But they like it when they win."